vegansaurus!

Divino, the restaurant that replaced Fellini, posts menu  »

So, we loved Berkeley’s Fellini but it’s long gone so we just have to go get used to that and get over it—which is very hard for us as WE HATE CHANGE. Anyway, the replacement, Divino, has posted their menu and it looks like a bunch of slow food hoo-hah but I’m thankful they’ll still have some vegan options, and the brunch looks especially good.

I don’t know, I love that they still have vegan pizza but I’m bummed that it’s all made with fancy grilled vegetables and not ten pounds of vegan meat. I loved that Smiling Cow pizza—that stuff was ridic! But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, maybe the roasted kumquat and tutti di frutti will be delicious?? I’m willing to give it a shot! Maybe this will finally be the amazingly authentic vegan Italian food that we’re missing in this area? Maybe they’ll make a gnocchi to rival Portland’s Portobello? Maybe I’ll win the lottery and ditch you all to yacht around the world with Jay-Z, Beyonce, and little Jay-Z-Beyonce? THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS.

I don’t think they’re open yet but people have been seen inside doing tastings but we don’t care about them because they’re not us. Anyone tried anything yet?? Anyone excited about them opening?? WHAT’S THE WORD LET’S EAT!

Thanks Jennifer Chen for the heads-up!

Vegan MoFo: Margherita toast!  »

More often than not, my easy vegan recipes come from a random craving that needs immediate satisfaction. Margherita toast is no exception: One autumn afternoon in 2010 I had a serious hankering for pizza—not greasy, drippy, stringy-cheesy pizza, but hearty, rich, and healthy: whole grains, chunky veggies, fresh greens, and tons of flavor. With no vegan pizza options in the vicinity, I rolled up my sleeves, opened my refrigerator door, and decided I’d have to get creative. Margherita Toast was soon born, and has become a simple staple in my household ever since.

Depending on the portion, it can be a snack or a full meal, and the flavors are full and rich enough to satisfy cravings for the not-so-super-healthy pizza varieties. Read on, and drool accordingly!

Ingredients
A couple slices of bread (whole grain is obviously best; sprouted is even better!)
Extra virgin olive oil
Roma tomatoes
Fresh ground salt and pepper
Fresh greens (I like arugula, but spinach, mizuna, broccoli rabe, etc. all work too)

Optional
vegan cheese alternative (I love Daiya, any flavor)
Tomato sauce
Fresh or dried Italian spices (basil, rosemary, oregano, etc.)
Get creative! Maybe some olives? Mushrooms? Artichoke hearts?

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Place one or two (or more!) slices of bread on a baking sheet or sheet of tinfoil. Spread a spoonful of sauce on the bread if you like, or just leave it plain. If you have a taste for cheese, sprinkle a little handful of Daiya (whichever flavor you like) on each piece of bread.

Then lay three or four tomato slices on each piece—slice ‘em thick if you like it hearty, or thin if you prefer a more subtle tomato flavor.

After the oven has preheated, put your creation on the middle rack and let it toast for about 12 minutes, depending on your oven—it may take as little as 10, or as much as 15.

Yank those bad boys out of the oven before they burn, and sprinkle some finely chopped fresh or dried herbs if you’re into it, then toss a good handful of greens on top of the whole mess. Follow that up with a dash of salt and freshly ground pepper, then a drizzle of olive oil over everything. Let it marinate for a minute or two—be patient!—and then feast.

With all the fresh, real, simple ingredients combined, you’ve created a serious taste of Italy. Win!

Vegan MoFo PLUS: Tofu Xpress makes amazing antipasto!  »

The cool dudes over at Tofu Xpress were kind enough to send over a unit for review, and I was so pumped about using the nifty gadget that I decided to incorporate it into my Vegan MoFo recipe. Talk about slicing two carrots with one knife!
The Tofu Xpress is a fully dishwasher-safe, easy-to-use, gourmet kitchen tool. Though it was created to remove moisture from a traditional block of tofu, it can be used for other foods that need pressing as well. To use, place a block of firm or extra-firm tofu into the container, attach and lock the lid, and let it do its job. Most of the water will be gone after an hour or so, but you can leave the Tofu Xpress in the fridge overnight, or however long you’d like.

Once pressed, tofu becomes easier to grill, marinate, stir fry and bake and results in richer flavors and increased versatility. After food prep, the machine is easy to clean and store, with only two, corrosion-resistent parts. Miraculous! After searching for some relatively simple pressed-tofu recipes, I was thrilled to find the perfect project: Marinated Tofu Cheese.

After pressing a block of extra-firm tofu for 48 hours (I wanted to be sure!), I chopped it into small blocks and tossed it with sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, fresh basil and rosemary, extra virgin olive oil, and a little salt and pepper. After making sure it was well combined, I packed the whole mixture into a Mason jar, topped it up with more olive oil, and let it sit in my fridge—patiently—for almost four days to soak up all the goodness.

Today, I picked up an Italian loaf at a local market and packed it, along with about half of my ready-to-devour mixture, and headed into work. After tasting the antipasto goodness myself, and gathering feedback from my foodie coworkers, the consensus is that my first Tofu Xpress experience was indeed a GREAT success!
Next time I’ll add a few whole cloves of garlic to the marinade, but aside from that it was truly delicious and rich. One of my coworkers said she’d even love to serve it at a party! Win! Can’t WAIT to try another recipe!

[Tofu Xpress image via Rollin’ Oats Market]

San Francisco: How not to starve in Fisherman’s Wharf!  »

I recently spent a weekend staying at Fisherman’s Wharf with some out-of-state relatives who wanted nothing from this city of ours but to stroll the tourist-packed length of Pier 39, to watch dolphins frolicking in the waters of the bay just off Alcatraz, and to eat repeatedly at the Best Western Tuscan Inn’s Café Pescatore. They apparently do some kind of bitching Italian that my parents couldn’t get enough of, and after a few meals of rather sub-par minestrone, the server and chef took pity on the two vegans and served us up a lovely saute of summer vegetables topped with a fried polenta cake. It was freaking gooooooood.

If you find yourself starving to death on Fisherman’s Wharf, and you can’t figure out how to take the F-Line to the Ferry Building, or the Ferry Building is closed because it’s the apocalypse, or your relatives are just super-focused on getting themselves some chicken parmesan, you could do way worse than landing here. At the Café, tell them you heard through the grapevine (aka, the special vegan mafioso rumor mill) about a special meal they can make for especially pretty vegans. Then smile really nicely and say please and thank you. Then maybe, just maybe, you’ll get to eat this.

Marla Wick lives in a small town in Sonoma County with one lucky fella and two cats. When she’s not reading speculative fiction or applying for jobs, she blogs about veganism, popular culture, and politics at Vegan-Squared and Bully Pulp.

Product review: Lucini Cinque e’ Cinque, a.k.a. Tuscan frittata!  »

Laura heard of this vegan Frittata mix by Lucini and she showed it to me. Your friend Megan Rascal was like about to die: I LOVE QUICHES AND FRITTATAS and all that eggy crap! So I wrote Lucini, my new best friends, and they sent me frittata mix, gratis. When I email people, they send me free shit. And when I dance, orphaned children find new homes.

How does it taste? It’s a little odd, but once you get used to it, it RULES. I’m obsessed with it and keep thinking about it ever since we made it. Like, for real.

The mix is essentially chickpea flour. First, I made one of the mixes straight-up, no veggies or nothing, and it was a little strange. It kind of has a custard-like texture? I don’t think you should make it and serve it plain . The pack even says to serve it on baguette or with tomatoes or something.

So I gave it another shot! My brother and I made it totally frittata-style and it was so great! We made the rosemary mix with broccoli, mushrooms and garlic. We had it with some kind of hearty toast my brother had. At first it was a little odd, but then once we got used to it, it was awesome! We BOTH had a slice for breakfast the next morning. I still thought it had a custard-y texture but my brother said it was like eating mashed potatoes with a bunch of veggies in it. We both agreed that it’s more frittata/egg-like when you eat it with toast. Also: I needed to add a serious amount of sea salt, but that’s me.

The other great thing about this frittata mix, it is SO EASY to make! But I have some tips for you: if you don’t know, generally when you make a quiche-type thing, all the fillings are pre-cooked. So we steamed the broccoli and sauteed the mushrooms before we put them in the batter. Something that is served raw, like tomatoes, you might not cook, but do pre-cook most other veggies. Also, we had to cook it for quite a while longer than it said but we got some extra water in it when we added the mushrooms. Lastly: halfway through, you are supposed to open your oven a little and let it cook for the rest of the time with the oven door a jar. This lets all the extra moisture out. My oven does not just stay open so a little thing you can do is stick the end of a wooden spoon in between the door and the oven just to keep it open a bit. The end of your spoon will probably blacken a bit but it’s not a big deal, unless you are a crybaby brother. This is also a great tip for when you are making biscotti. Got to dry them mofos out!

Here’s a pic out of the oven:

You can see it’s a bit moist in the middle but it had stopped giggling when we wiggled it so we took it out and it was fine. Oh, another bonus: it’s pretty healthy! Go health!

Moral of the story: two thumbs up, but you have to be open-minded at first bite. Go forth! I want someone to make it in a crust like a real quiche. Do it!

Vegansaurus NYC: John’s of 12th Street’s new all-vegan menu!  »

I heard some chatter that one of NYC’s oldest Italian restaurants had added an all-vegan menu in addition to their regular menu. Naturally I looked into it. Sure enough, John’s of 12th Street has not just vegan options but an entirely separate vegan menu, which proclaims: “We want everyone to be able to enjoy our Italian specialties made with the freshest ingredients available! All of our vegan dishes are plant-based and contain no animal ingredients whatsoever. We use dedicated cooking utensils for preparing vegan dishes.” Wow! I arranged a dinner immediately with a bunch of my vegan friends and we promptly showed up forks in hand.

John’s is an old-school Italian place. It opened in 1903 and the space has an old-fashioned feel. The waiters are all in white button-ups with ties and have Brooklyn accents. And at one point our waiter actually yelled at an adjacent birthday party to keep it down—for the record, they were being wicked loud—totally awesome.

When we sat down, we were asked if we’d like garlic bread; my friend said we’d like the vegan garlic bread. Our waiter asked if we were all “goin’ ve-gaan tonight?” We nodded and he quickly whisked away our menus and replaced them with the vegan ones. Super exciting. Vegan appetizers, salads, pastas, entrees, and desserts. We were a large party so I got to taste a wide variety. Two kinds of bruschetta (one with avocado!), Caesar salad, stuffed mushrooms, minestrone soup. All quite good. For my main I order pasta with vegan Alfredo, BECAUSE HOW CAN YOU NOT. It was good. I won’t lie, I put a lot of salt and pepper on it but after that it was delicious. My roommate had the tofu spinach ravioli which I though had really impressive texture, just like a traditional ravioli. Another friend let me taste the seitan parm (it was yum) which came with a SIDE of pasta. Would you like a side of pasta? Only with everything please!

Then came dessert. This was the true highlight. I got the vanilla cannoli. Oh man. Cue picture:

Crazy delicious! Some of my friends got the chocolate version but I didn’t taste it because no one was interested in sharing at this point, just scarfing. There was also a panna cotta (surprisingly good) and ice cream from Lula’s (always a delight).

Bottom line: I was ultra-stoked about this trip because I LOVE Italian food, but I wouldn’t tell a vegan from out of town to go out of their way unless they are a major fan like me. Except for the cannoli which IS worth going out of your way!! You should go get one NOW. This is a great place for a large dinner party, especially if it’s a mixed party with vegans and nons. The food is good. It is not unbelievable or particularly special but it is a solid “good.”

I think its super important to point out that John’s is freaking radical for doing this!! How many restaurants can you just walk into and not just have a few options but your whole own entire menu made with special animal-free pots and pans? Like NOWHERE. Go John’s of 12th Street! You are sexy like a vegan! I hope this is the sign of a trend because I would love for more restaurants/bakeries/delis/etc. to have good vegan options. And I MEAN options; one item is not “options.” Yay for vegan Italian food! Is it the best food ever? No. Is it good? Yes! I’ll take another side of pasta please!

[Ed.: Oh, snap! It looks like you can ORDER ONLINE!! Ugh, do they deliver to Oakland? BECAUSE WANT.]

Laura Yasinitsky is a writer, comic, waitress, and animal-lover based in New York City. She has appeared on Comedy Central’s “Open-Mic Fight” and writes for US Weekly’s Fashion Police. You can follow her silliness on Twitter @LaraYaz and read about her animal friendly adventures at Laura Goes Vegan.

A Vegan in Central Europe: Thanksgiving in London!  »

Visiting London over my Thanksgiving break was awesome thrice over: my cousin lives in London, so I got to spend a lovely Thanksgiving with family, despite the fact that I’ve been living 5,000+ miles away from home; I got to eat hella vegan food; and I saw items in the produce section of Whole Foods (!!!!) that I honestly forgot existed—Prague grocery stores carry tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, and potatoes; kale? fuhgeddaboudit. Japanese eggplant? nowai. Fresh herbs if you’re lucky. While I have a shitty camera, and didn’t keep it with me the whole time, I still managed to take some photos of the damned good food I ate.

For Thanksgiving, I went to Manna with my cousin for the Thanksgiving special. For £27 per person, we got one of the yummiest dinners ever. It started off with a cranberry cordial aperitif, which my cousin and I fucking devoured the hell out of despite neither of us being cranberry fanatics. I was expecting it to taste like old grandma, but it was really refreshing and I downed it quicker than I should have, I’m sure. The first course was a pumpkin soup with rosemary spelt foccacia. I love pumpkin with rosemary, so I was a little let down when my bread ran out and the soup tasted bland in comparison. Then was the wilted spinach salad with walnuts and pomegranate in an apple-cider vinaigrette. Can I just say they know how to make salad dressing? I could have guzzled that shit by the gallon. I could have drained all of the blood from my body and replaced it with apple cider vinaigrette. I don’t know what they put in that other than apple cider vinegar and oil, but they know what the fuck they’re doing, lemme tell you what. The main course (pictured) was an herbed tempeh roast with wild mushroom gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, sauteed green beans, and stuffing. I, in general, fucking hate mushrooms. The mere fact that I ate everything on this plate, including the gravy, was a fucking feat in and of itself. Licked our damn plates clean, we did.

The last—and most impressive—course was the warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream. You can’t tell how delicious the ice cream is from here, but it should officially be renamed to “buttercream” flavor or something; they did NOT wimp out on the rich vanilla. I was so impressed with the texture I asked them what it was made out of, I was sure it was cashews. The manager/owner assured me that no, it was soy. SOY! Who knew?!?!?! She then gave me a sample of their truffles and petits fours ON THE HOUSE. Because we were chatting about the awesomeness of Booja Booja and she liked me, I guess. I got SO fat that night, and left the chocolate gift till breakfast the next morning.

I also had a chance to go to the posh and happenin’ Mildred’s restaurant in Soho. It was too hip and expensive for me, so naturally I pigged out shamelessly. By myself. In the midst of this bustling restaurant that reminded me a lot of Angelica Kitchen in NYC, without the wholesomeness. To the left, you’ll see my starter. It was grilled artichoke with crostini, some basil-soy dipping sauce, and a small green salad (it cost £5.50, not too bad for a starter). I think this was better than what I got for the main course, to be honest; maybe because in my opinion artichokes are the best vegetables of all time and goddamned it all to hell if the Czech Republic needs to get on that shit and zomg you must order this dish if you go to London. My second course (below) was basically this Middle Eastern creation with a harissa sauce on the side, a cupful of almond-scented couscous, and a chickpea-eggplant stew, served with some crispy-ass pita (£8.50 if I remember correctly). It was a real winner, but I think they put too much coriander in it or something.

Also on the list of amazing places to go in London is the pricey but delectable all-vegetarian Italian/Mediterranean restaurant Amico Bio. All I can say is that they really celebrate the vegetables they use, and don’t dress them up that much. It’s perfect. I started with a zuppa di fave secce e brocolli de rapa (£5.50), then had the seitan scallopini on a bed of the most delicious sauteed spinach I have ever had the pleasure of eating (£8), with a side of sauteed kale (could have left this one after all, for £2.80) and finished off with frittele de mele con salsa al ciocollato (£5). The last dish, the fried apple pastry, had the same aroma as every fried pastry that lures you in with its smell but you know isn’t vegan so you cry a lot, but they’re vegan here. GO. Also, go to Pho. I thought the pho I got from Loving Hut here in Prague was baller; clearly I was mistaken. The place is hella cheap, I think £7 for the tofu-mushroom—again, I managed the dish with the mushrooms, it was THAT GOOD.

Lastly, MAKE IT OUT TO THE GREENWICH MARKETS TO TRY SOME FUCKING VEGAN CUPCAKES. This is a picture of me devouring the hell out of a vegan chocolate chip cupcake I got from Ms. Cupcake (£2 each and I bought four). It was one of three that I ate; my cousin was the lucky recipient of the fourth. I ate the Ferrero Rocher-style cupcake as well as a banana cream one, in addition to the chocolate chip one here. I don’t wanna toot my own horn, but I make some fucking amazing cupcakes, and Ms Cupcake here makes them better than me. I know, impossible, right?! BUT SHE IS THAT GOOD. GO HERE PLEASE GET FAT FOR ME. Also, Ms. Cupcake, if you’re reading this, can you move to NYC or LA for me pretty please?!

My last suggestion: if you should find yourself in Camden Town, which you will, go to Inspiral Lounge. I went there and ate some HELLA amazing lavender ice cream AND had a pint of beer with it. They also have free internet for you to use, and even a computer if you’re a weary traveler like yours truly.